Others' choices that turn out badly often elicit schadenfreude; that is, feelings of malicious joy about the misfortunes of others. We examine the impact of experiencing schadenfreude when choosing between conventional and unconventional options. Results show that individuals are relatively more...

This research examines the influence of final trend, temporal proximity, and source similarity on consumers' overall retrospective evaluations of sequential mixed affective experiences comprised of positive, negative, and neutral affective responses. Findings from the first experiment indicate...

Can properties of emotions other than valence influence consumers' responses to emotional ads? We show that consumers' processing motivation moderates whether their attitudes are based on the valence of or the resource demands imposed by the emotion featured in an ad. When motivation is low,...

Magical thinking refers to irrational peculiar beliefs, including those that conform to the laws of contagion. We propose that touching an object that was previously touched by a high performer increases confidence via magical thinking (ability contagion) and improves actual performance among...

We document the existence of an inference strategy based on a no-pain, no-gain lay theory, showing that consumers infer pharmaceutical products to be more efficacious when they are associated with a detrimental side effect or attribute. Study 1 finds that consumers high in need for cognition...

Despite the ubiquity of fateful predictions in consumers’ lives, little is known about how these forecasts impact subsequent choice. This research concerns fate as an inevitable outcome and posits that consumers who believe in fate have an implicit theory about the nature of fate, such that...

In a choice between any two options, decision makers can be divided into three segments: those who strongly prefer the first option, those who strongly prefer the second option, and those who might choose either option depending on the particular conditions ("switchers"). In any reference state,...

Despite the large impact that superstitious beliefs have on the marketplace, we currently know very little about their implications for consumer judgment and decision making. We document the existence of the influence of superstitious beliefs on consumer behavior and specify their conscious and...

Consumers often undervalue price promotions because they discount the discounts. In this research, we examine the effect of using a novel type of discount presentation (e.g., “Pay 60% of the regular price”) on deal evaluations, and compare it to that of an equivalent discount presentation...